Forty years ago tonight three American astronauts in an Apollo spacecraft were orbiting the moon and broadcasting greetings to the world on TV and radio. A shining heavenly body attracting our attention on Christmas Eve, who would've thought? And human beings so close to it that they could scout out future landing sites. Seven months later we did land there.
The hopeful ending to a terrible year--the Tet offensive in Viet Nam, Martin Luther King's assassination, then Bobby Kennedy's, the Chicago police riot, Nixon's election--did not exactly bring in an era of good feelings, and after a few more trips to it we let the moon go. The political point we had wanted to make in the 60's had been made and the Soviets never could match it.
There are probably people orbiting Earth tonight in the Space Station but we are used to that by now, and the Russians are part of every trip we take. A new light and hope are needed this year and all eyes are on Barack Obama as he prepares in the Hawaiian sun for his landing on January 20th. Here's hoping the next forty years will be a longer leap for mankind than the one in 1968 and that lights in the skies ahead will signal joy, not horror.
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